You Can Never Leave
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: Oneshot written for the NFA Nepal charity auction. Based on "Hotel California". Tim isn't where he thought he was, and that's a bad thing.


**A/N:** And another oneshot written for the NFA Nepal charity auction. This was is a supernatural-type story based on "Hotel California" by The Eagles. I'd never listened to the verses before writing this story and it's a pretty strange song. Fun though. :)

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own NCIS or its characters, and I don't own "Hotel California". I'm not profiting by this story...except in reviews. :)

* * *

 **You Can Never Leave  
** by Enthusiastic Fish

 _Last thing I remember, I was  
_ _Running for the door  
_ _I had to find the passage back  
_ _To the place I was before  
_ " _Relax," said the night man,  
_ " _We are programmed to receive.  
_ _You can check-out any time you like,  
_ _But you can never leave!"  
_ " _Hotel California" by The Eagles_

Tim looked around. This was not what he was expecting.

"Hello, sir, are you checking in?"

For a moment, he was totally weirded out, but then, concerns faded away and he smiled.

"Yes, yes, I'm checking in," he said.

He stepped up to the counter in a beautiful hotel lobby. There was a small part of him that was saying this shouldn't be here, but that voice was extremely faint.

"Welcome, to the Hotel California," the man at the desk said. "We have plenty of rooms. Mercedes will help you find yours."

Tim turned and there was a woman standing in front of him. She had dark, mysterious eyes and a smile that was all for him.

"Hello, come with me," she said.

He followed her through a maze of hallways and courtyards filled with people dancing in the hot night. Finally, they stopped in front of a door.

"Here you are. There's champagne on ice in your room. Compliments of the house."

Tim nodded. The little voice intruded just enough.

"How did I get here?" he asked.

"The same way everyone else did," she said.

Tim stepped inside the room. It was large, beautiful, ornate.

...and wrong. It was wrong.

"Why is it wrong?" he asked himself, aloud.

There was no answer. He walked to the windows and looked down at an open courtyard filled with lights and dancing. He looked out at the view. It was beautiful.

Why was it all wrong?

The Hotel California.

That wasn't where he should be. He knew that much, but he couldn't think of _why_ he knew that with such certainty.

 _What was I doing before I came here?_

He couldn't think of anything.

That was not a good thing. Why couldn't he remember and why had that not bothered him until this moment?

Suddenly, though he was really tired and he couldn't think. The bed was right there and it was so inviting. He could sleep first and think about it later.

He lay down and his eyes closed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"I can't find him, anywhere, Boss," Tony said. "I swear he was just around the corner and then he was gone."

Gibbs furrowed his brow and looked around. There shouldn't be anywhere that Tim could hide or that anyone else could hide for that matter.

"Hey, Gibbs, look what I found!" Ellie said. "Looks like this _was_ a real place once."

She held up a sign that had formerly been lit by a number of lightbulbs. The first part read _Hotel_. The second was broken. The only part that was discernible were three letters _orn_.

"Later, Bishop. McGee is missing. Start looking for him, but stay in sight of someone."

She quickly put down the sign, understanding how serious it could be. They began to search the old lot. All that was left were a few crumbling walls.

And the sign.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Strange voices haunted his dreams, singing voices, tantalizing him, luring him ever onward, but he couldn't listen to those voices. He had somewhere he needed to be.

He opened his eyes and was no longer tired.

He was surrounded by men staring at him with a strange hunger in their eyes. They all had knives. The bed had vanished. Replaced by a long banquet table.

He jumped up and started to run. He could hear their calls behind him and he knew he had to get away.

The walls were mazes. Every turn seemed to lead him further into the hotel, not farther away. He rounded a corner and saw Mercedes standing, her back to him.

"Help!" he cried. "They're after me!"

She turned around and he was surrounded by flames. Mercedes twisted and warped through the heat of the fire. She started to melt away from him, carried on the waves of heat.

He started to run again. He had to get away.

There was the front desk. He ran by it to the door, but it wouldn't open.

"Let me out!" he demanded.

The man at the desk simply smiled at him as the fire that had surrounded Mercedes began to consume the beautiful lobby and all the guests.

"You can check out if you want, but you can't leave," he said in an unconcerned voice and held out a slip of paper. Tim grabbed it from him.

The fire began to come closer and closer.

There had to be a way out. There just had to be. If he couldn't go out the same door he'd come in, then, he'd find another way.

He started to run again.

The fire seemed to be all around him, but then, glowing greenly, far away from him, he saw a beautiful sight: an exit sign. He sped up, determined to get away. He wouldn't be stuck here as the hotel burned.

He got closer and closer...

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"I don't know, Boss," Tony said. "I can't find him. Ellie can't find him. You can't find him. Maybe he really did get pulled away somewhere. I just don't know how it would be possible. There's nowhere to hide here."

Ellie nodded. "We'll just have to..."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash coming from behind one of the crumbling walls. They ran over.

There was Tim, lying on the ground, the smell of smoke coming from his clothes. He seemed to have fallen there. His eyes were closed and there was something clutched in his hand.

They all looked around for a moment. Where could he have come from?

Then, Gibbs knelt down and tapped Tim on the face.

"Tim?"

Tim's eyes flew open and he sat up, looking around wildly.

"Hey! You all right?"

"The...the...fire..." he said, trailing off as visual stimuli made it into his brain for analysis. "I... it was... He said..."

"Hey, Tim. You hear me? You all right?"

Tim looked at Gibbs.

"Yeah. I think... Yeah."

"Where did you go?" Tony asked.

"Go?" Tim repeated. "I was... here. Wasn't I?"

Gibbs and Tony helped Tim stand up. He seemed confused but not injured. The smoke on his clothes was strange. There was no sign of a fire anywhere on the lot.

"Don't worry, McGee," Tony said. "Let's just get you out of here."

Ellie lingered behind them. Tim had dropped what he'd been holding in his hand.

She leaned over and picked it up. It was a slip of paper. It looked very old and was a little singed around the edges.

 _Welcome to the Hotel California.  
_ _We're open any time of year!  
_ _Always rooms available! Free champagne to every guest!_

Then, there was a date: December 8, 1976.

And a signature.

"Timothy McGee," she read.

She looked around the lot once more. There _had_ been a hotel here. It had apparently burned down. She had a really bad feeling.

"Hey! Bishop, let's go!" Tony called.

Ellie jumped and let go of the paper. It was carried away by the wind. She considered going after it, but decided not to.

Something strange had happened here.

Best to let the past lie.

She ran back to where the others were waiting and then, the lot was empty once more.

...for now.

FINIS!


End file.
